Article 25

Name of the activity: Article 25

Country/NMO: India (MSAI)

Program: Ethics & Human Rights in Health

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education. Education on health issues for specific societal groups, either in the form of projects (set of tasks for a certain group over a fixed period of time), events (something notable that happens) or conferences (form meeting about ideas related to a particular topic, usually over several days).

General description:

A broken spectacle rested on his nose

This isn’t the life he ever chose

Awaiting death as days pass by

Lacking passion he stares at the sky

On his wheelchair in the gloomy room

Restlessly waiting for his eternal doom.

Most common problems are

1. Lack of engagement opportunities 2. Declining health quality 3. Lack of respect in family/society 4. Loneliness/isolation 5. Financial dependence 7. Legal issues.

throughout the activity we aim at involving the audience in interactive discussions, having healthy conversations, incorporating fun activities to keep them engaged and actively participate for maximum outcome.

Our Resources included Posters, and Post Event questionnaire.

We hope to provide them with basic information about importance of health care, provisions made by the government, positive approach to life and the encouragement to speak up in untoward situations

Focus area:

Human Rights for Medical Professionals in daily clinical settings

Problem statement:

The world’s largest democracy, a magnanimous country of 1.3 billion people of which 98.3 million (as of 2011 census) are aged above 60. According to a national study conducted by ‘Agewell Foundation’ New Delhi, 27% of them had no access to health care and 53.9% couldn’t afford it. .A devastating 70.74% had no control over their finances. 52.5% find themselves shuddered in disrespectful social environment. This is the need of the hour in our country.

Target groups:

Elderly people

Beneficiaries:

General population, Medical students, Elderly people

Objectives and indicators of success:

1. To identify the spectrum of human rights violated of the elderly.

2. To examine issues and problems related to activities of regular living, social interaction, personal relations and their effects on their psychology.

3. To highlight the importance of health and give them information on the basic provisions made by the government and hospitals nearby.

4. To decipher the different physical and psychological health problems of elderly in old age homes.

5. To share ways of occupying themselves in the greying days of life, inculcate hobbies and improve communication skills.

6. To evoke a sense of positivity in aging, encouraging them to continue and lead a life of respect.

7. To deconstruct the stigma surrounding old age, old age homes and hospitals.

8. To instill empathy in medical student, teaching them how to interact with the older person making them responsible doctors of tomorrow.

9. To include basic aspects of health check ups and give practical experience to the volunteers.

Methodology:

Our Resources included Posters, and Post Event questionnaire which were developed after consultation and review by HOD of the Community Medicine department at Pune’s Medical college and were built after referring to the 24th edition of Park’s Textbook on Preventive and Social Community Medicine.

Throughout the activity we aim at involving the audience in interactive discussions, having healthy conversations, incorporating fun activities to keep them engaged and actively participate for maximum outcome.

We ensure to limit Volunteer:Audience ratio to 1:4.

We encourage our volunteers to conduct a basic health check ups and ensure the event has atleast one volunteer in the clinical years.. We also address to the Government provisions in their local area, sharing details of hospitals, NGOs and helplines.

Plans for evaluation:

The evaluation is done using pre and post event questionnaires.

Pre event questionnaire is to assess baseline awareness and knowledge in the target audience.

Post event questionnaire is to assess the impact of the event. It is used to understand the flaws in project design or the inappropriate methods of event conduction.

We also used technical indicators like number of events, number of volunteers, target audience addressed to.

Evaluation of subjective experience and feedbacks is also carried to assist the individual project evaluation

Success Indicators

General Indicators

1) Number of on ground events :- (minimum 5)

2) Number of elderly reached:- minimum 100

3) Quality of interaction and involvement of the audience during the event :- We encouraged group discussions of 1:4 and personal interactions as a method to not only give information as volunteers but to create a safe space for them.

Specific Indicators would be assessed after the event concludes.